Depression is a common psychiatric disorder in adolescence, while relatively rare during childhood. The primary aim of this PhD project is to better understand the neurobiology of adolescent depression. The project will be embedded in the population-based Generation R Study, which collects data from fetal life forward. 5,200 children have undergone an MRI assessment, and over 2,500 have been scanned multiple times. The student will learn to apply machine-learning algorithms to neuroimaging data with the goal of identifying complex patterns in brain structure and function. Such patterns can subsequently complement traditional diagnostic classifications through disorder subtyping. This project is led by Professor Henning Tiemeier (promoter), who holds joint appointments at Erasmus MC University Medical Center and Harvard University in Boston, Massachusetts.
The candidate will be required to collect data, conduct analyses, present work at internal meetings, and to publish findings in international scientific journals. A Master degree in Epidemiology at the
NIHES in Rotterdam is part of the training.